Most of the species on earth are facing the danger of extinction and need some sort of protection from the human beings. The situation is becoming grave since human beings have rampantly destroyed the nature and altered the climatic conditions by pollution and toxicity. Human beings treat the earth as though it is their own property and no other species will be allowed to share the natural resources. This thinking itself may one day cause the demise of human beings.

The scientists and rationalists have realised that unless the bio-diversity is maintained the survival of the human as a species will also be in danger. As such there is a world wide campaign to protect the rare species like tigers, Panda etc. Though we may not term the snakes as near extinction species, there is a tendency in our society to kill the snakes fearing that it will bite and kill the human being. The scientific studies have shown that nearly 90% snakes in our area are not poisonous and their bite is not fatal. Even the bite of poisonous snakes is curable if prompt action is initiated by the concerned as soon as the snake bite is noticed.

Snakes are friends of farmers in true sense. Field snakes help the farmers by eating the field rodents which destroys the agriculture produce stored by the farmers. As such the sane society will never kill the snakes unnecessarily .

Campaign

To stress the importance of this fact and remove the stigma attached towards snakes, ANS takes initiative and mobilises the resources to bring awareness about snakes in rural areas. There are many activists in the organization who routinely catch the snakes and allow them to survive in the forests or at some remote places. In fact they are called Sarp Mitra (Friends of snakes) by villagers. ANS organises Sarp Yatra routinely by arranging exhibition and demonstration of snakes. Sarp Mitra will demonstrate various aspects of snakes, snake bites, precautions to be taken, general idea to classify the snakes into poisonous and non-poisonous, first aid, etc.

Recently ANS took a Sarp Yatra with the association of Dept of Forest, Maharashtra in Jan/Feb 2009. It was a tremendous success.

ANS is planning to train Sarp Mitra properly since most of the amateurs do not know finer aspects of snakes and snake biting. ANS will organise the training camps and conduct examination to assess their proficiency and award certificates approved by the government. This will enable to stop mal-practices that are creeping in handling he snakes.